The Game
by PetalPierrot
Summary: The Armed Detective Company receive a strange coded message only titled "Hello"
Author's note: The lovely Ranpotrash on twitter helped me a lot! Thank you so much!

Tanizaki entered the office building while studying a sheet of paper. It appeared to be a coded message. He had picked it up from the police station, and thought that perhaps Ranpo would be able to decipher it. The officer mentioned it being an urgent matter, as the man who delivered it was a bit suspicious and yet, when they tried to detain the man he had vanished. The red haired boy went up the stairs then opened the door to the office, looking for Ranpo.

"What's wrong Brother?" Naomi came up and then embraced him "Hmm?"

"We've got an emergency on our hands." he looked around "Where's Ranpo-san?"

"He went out to buy sweets and doughnuts a moment ago." She smiled. "Why don't I help you, hmm?"

"At a time like this?" Tanizaki sighed, looking at the sheet in his hands. When Naomi's eyes caught a glimpse of the paper her eyes widened and she looked a bit shocked. To the untrained eye it just looked like a bunch of scribbles, and some of the strange scribbles formed letters, words and numbers. It looked like something a madman would write.

"What are you two standing around for?" Kunikida came into the room, glancing at the siblings. "Get to work."

"Kunikida-san, maybe you could help." The youth showed the tall man the paper. "I've received this from the police and, it looks like it's important"

Kunikida glanced at the paper, adjusting his glasses. He had no idea what to make of it. "Did you show this to Ranpo-san?"

Kunikida inhaled and exhaled softly, moving his hand through his hair in thought. "I'll see what I can do" The light haired man went over to the bookshelf, and looked through some books. When he had found what he was looking for, he brought the book over, placing it on the desk. "These should help us solve the cipher"

As the three of them were racking their brains, trying to decipher the message before them Ranpo finally came back from his trip to the convenience store.

"Ranpo-san, we could use your help" Kunikida looked up from the paper

Ranpo looked over annoyed "I'm not interested" He said and bit into a doughnut.

"Ranpo-san, please…this is an emergency." Kunikida implored.

Tanizaki frowned "The whole city might be in danger Ranpo-san, will you please help us?"

Ranpo shrugged "I can solve this case in less than sixty seconds, there's no challenge in it at all." He yawned.

Ranpo kept eating his donut, in spite of the pleas from his co workers.

"What is going on?" The director walked out of his office looking at the two opposites.

Tanizaki informed the director about what was going on "Ranpo is the only one who can solve this with ease." He looked over at Ranpo who gave him a stink eye.

The director heard them out and walked over, taking the file. He took it over to Ranpo's desk and placed it in front of him. "Ranpo, If you decode this message, I will praise you."

Ranpo looked astounded at the director, so much so that he dropped his doughnut.

"Well I can't help it if you can't solve something as easy as this." Ranpo smirked "You'll really be thankful for my ultra deduction now."

It didn't take Ranpo long to solve the cipher. In fact it only took him a few seconds " "It says 'Hello'" Ranpo began and took a page of clean paper, jotting down a few notes. He then grin widely "Now this is interesting, three points!" Ranpo shouted out.

"What does it say, Ranpo-san?" Junichirou and Naomi looked at him.

"It's an invitation! A challenge!" He looked back to the group "Some bad guys set up explosives all around Yokohama."

Ranpo pulled up a laptop and marked the map for locations.

"Each letter in 'HELLO' represents a specific location in code. It's all in small print, you see."

Ranpo looked at the time. "Oh we only have three hours to dismantle the explosives before it all blows up."

The Tanizaki siblings and Kunikida looked flabbergasted before hurrying to the locations that Ranpo specified.

Kunikida headed to the one labeled 'H' which happened to be Hakkeijima Sea Paradise, it was packed. Kunikida looked for the specific location, a bit panicked. Will it be inside? Will it be around? He had little time to waste. He called back to the office "Ranpo-san could you specify?"

Ranpo answered, mouth full of food. "ishuby inshide dabuildng kunishida-kwun, neaw awot of peeple"

"Very well, Ranpo-san, I'm still looking." Kunikida hung up and bought a ticket. He looked through different sections of the park and then came upon the Aquatic Theater. He peeked in and to his horror he saw a large bomb implanted into one of the seats.

Kunikida quickly entered the place and dismantled the bomb with ease.

Kenji was sent to the E location, which happened to be the port. Kenji had no idea how to dismantle it so he simply threw it into the sea, a spot where no one seemed to be, it exploded but thankfully there were no casualties.

The Double L location was up to Dazai and Atsushi. Yamashita park was the location. It was obvious, as there were many many bombs plastered all over the Goddess of Water Statue. It all connected to one comb that was meant to detonate the other, smaller bombs.

"What are we to do Dazai-san?" Atsushi looked terrified at the amount of explosives. "This could blow up the entire park."

"Worry not, Atsushi-kun" Dazai smirked "I think it's about time you learned to dismantle explosives."

"Eeehhhh? Right now?" Atsushi looked horrified at Dazai's smirking face.

"Worry not, I'll guide you so you won't blow anything up."

Atsushi nodded, he trusted Dazai and did as he was told, though just in the nick of time, as thay barely had an hour left.

Thje last, O bomb was on Nihon Odori Street, Junichirou and Naomi were in charge of the final bomb. "Wh-what will we do Naomi, we barely have any time left" The red-headed youth whimpered as he looked around frantically for the bomb.

"I'm sure we'll find it." Naomi said cheerfully and put him at ease.

Naomi spotted a popular cafe and smiled "Let's ask in there!"

Junichirou looked skeptical but followed his sister, only to discover bombs trapped all over the place. The Cashier, Baristas were tied together.

Junichirou didn't waste any more time and began meddling with the controls, disarming them.

Thus, with 5 seconds left, all the bombs were disposed of.

When everyone returned completely exhausted, they all praised Ranpo on his quick thinking. Ranpo was more than happy.

Kunikida smiled "Ranpo-san, we couldn't have done it without you."

Ranpo cackled "Of course not! You're all just basking in the glory of the greatest detective!"


End file.
